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Abstract

We have succeeded in fabricating a photonic crystal nanocavity with a photon lifetime of 2.1 ns, which corresponds to a quality factor of 2.5×106. This lifetime is the longest recorded thus far in photonic crystal cavities, and was brought about by improvements in the fabrication process. Comparing our experimental quality factor with the results of calculations shows that we have suppressed variations in the radii and positions of the air holes composing a nanocavity such that their standard deviations are less than 1 nm.

In fact there are three guidance mechanisms in the photonic heterostructures: the total internal reflection at the slab-air interface, the photonic band gap effect across the waveguide, and the photonic mode gap effect along the waveguide.

Other (1)

In fact there are three guidance mechanisms in the photonic heterostructures: the total internal reflection at the slab-air interface, the photonic band gap effect across the waveguide, and the photonic mode gap effect along the waveguide.

Figures (5)

(a). SEM image of the nanocavity with a two-step heterostructure. PC1 has a triangular-lattice structure with a lattice constant of a1. PC2 and PC2’ have a deformed triangular-lattice structure with lattice constants of a2 and a2’ in the x-direction; they retain the same lattice constant as PC1 in the y-direction in order to satisfy lattice-matching conditions. (b) Schematic view of the band diagram along the x-direction for the line defect in Fig. 1(a). The ground-state nanocavity mode mainly exists in the waveguide section formed by PC2 and PC2’. (c) SEM image of the region around the nanocavity and schematic picture of the transmission spectroscopy experiment.

Drop (filled circle) and transmission (open circle) spectra for cavities separated by (a) four rows and (b) six rows of air holes from the excitation waveguide. The scale of the horizontal axes in (a) and (b) are the same. Solid and dashed lines represent the fits using Lorentzian functions. Small oscillations in the transmission spectra might originate from the laser source.

Evolution of emission from a nanocavity using pulse widths of 4 ns, 6 ns, and 8 ns. (a) Calculated results for a nanocavity with τ=2 ns using coupled-mode theory in the absence of nonlinear effects. (b) Experimental results for a nanocavity with seven rows of separation.

Q factors calculated using the 3D-FDTD method by introducing variations in the radii and positions of the air holes according to a Gaussian distribution. The horizontal axis represents the σ for each type of variation. The curves show the results of calculations for 10 different fluctuation patterns. The value of Qexp at σ=0 nm corresponds to a Qideal of 1.5×107.